BBC iPlayer Launches for UK Bold 9700 & Storm2 Users

So much for having an actual application. Ricky just let us know about BBC releasing the iPlayer, which right off the bat we believed to be an application. Based on tips we received about a month ago, we still thought it was going to be an application. BBC iPlayer came out to be just a mobile website to watch clips and full length videos from BBC right on BlackBerry. Currently the only supported devices are the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Storm2. On the brighter side, I must say that it is nice to be able to stream long full videos on BlackBerry rather than 30 second clips, so it’s not so bad in the end. The bottom line is that many of us were expecting to see an actual application based on BBC’s hype.

BBC iPlayer works for folks in the UK only, as I tried streaming from New Jersey, USA and received “we do not currently support BBC iPlayer outside the United Kingdom.” So use the link below to download the BBC iPlayer shortcut, and you’ll be good to go from there.

UPDATE: Our contributing author Ryan just let me know that the services are only working over the WiFi network. Also, he’s been nice enough to send us some screenshots to post of what to expect from the services. Check out the whole post as we changed up the pics! Enjoy.

I would say that the BBC iplayer need to do a version of the website designed for a mobile (i.e. iPhone). While of course the iPhone can (and does) display the full BBC website and the iPlayer webpage, if it was designed like some other iPhone optimised sites it would be a lot quicker and easier to navigate.